US spin leads PHL by the nose, again!

 

Byย Herman Tiu Laurel

 

Some space debris believed to be from a Chinese rocket splashed back down to earth, onto the 3.5-square kilometers South China Sea. The Western media has made a lot of noise about Chinaโ€™s space exploration projects but these efforts are recognized by the United Nations as part of Mankindโ€™s โ€œpeaceful exploration of space for Mankindโ€™s benefitโ€ and have set up rules and conventions on the conduct of such activities -including the management of space debris issues.

                The Western media never passes up any opportunity to distort an incident to distort and misrepresent in order to malign China, Filipinos should learn this by now but hasnโ€™t. Philippine media and officials have not learned from the long record of disinformation, fake news and outright black  propaganda  against China โ€“ and always leading by the nose Filipinos who are willing to buy the American story line without any critical thought first.

ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  Itโ€™s a good time to recall cases of disinformation of the West again, such as the Simularity case where a US NGO in July 2021 reported a Chinese ship spewing human excrement in its wake in the SCS when it was later shown it was a photo of a ship in 2014 the Australian Great Barrier Reef dumping tailings โ€“ a misrepresented photo then defense secretary Delfin Lorenzana exposed to the media a week later. I thought Philippine media would learn a lesson from that, but apparently not even today.

 
 

ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  Then thereโ€™s the April 2021 case of the โ€œZambrano Chinese Coast Guard chaseโ€ that never was where ABS-CBN reporter faked a story alleging Chinese Cost Guard โ€œmissile vesselsโ€ chased her out of the Ayungin Shoals which turned out to be a figment of the ABS-CBN reporterโ€™s imagination using some staged video clips, reportedly all for the funding (see Pinoy Esposรฉ of the โ€œInstitute for War and Peace Reportingโ€. Konrad Adenauer Foundation and the NED (National Endowment for Democracy).

 

ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  In the alleged โ€œseizureโ€ of space debris the headline exaggerations of Western media are obvious, such as the VOA and APโ€™s โ€œChinese Coast Guard Seizes Rocket Debris From Filipino Navyโ€ (11/20/22), and then the Inquirer sensationalizing it further โ€œChinese vessel, PH Navy boat face off in Palawan watersโ€ and โ€œBlasts heard in Pag-asa Island after PH, China sea encounterโ€ while provincial news reports โ€œWESCOM, PNP confirm China โ€˜forcefullyโ€™ took rocket debris from Philippine navyโ€.

                WESCOM spokesman Major Cherryl Tindog said of the incident, โ€œโ€œMaximum tolerance naman tayo sa ganoโ€™n eh, so parang ano, since itโ€™s unidentified, then not a matter of life and death naman โ€˜yung object,โ€ Tindog told the media. โ€œNag-decide na lang โ€˜yung ating team na ano, na bumalik na lang dun sa NSEL.โ€ (… the item was unidentified and not a matter of life and death so the team decided to return to the NSEL (Naval Station Emilio Liwanag)…..โ€

The Chinese embassy, however, denied that there was blocking involved. It also expressed gratitude towards the Philippine side for helping retrieve the space debris. The good will between the two countries smoothen the seas for such friendly encounters. There may have been some negative perception in the process as some report says but there is a language barrier that may have caused such misunderstanding, if there was any at all in reality.

Part of the Chinese embassy response I quote here:

โ€œRelevant reports are inconsistent with facts. Hereโ€™s what happened according to the spokesperson of the Chinese Foreign Ministry. At around 8:00 am on November 20 a China Coast Guard ship found an unidentified floating object in the waters off the Nansha Islands, which was later identified as the wreckage of the fairing of a rocket recently launched by China. Before the China Coast Guard found the said floating object some Philippine Navy personnel already retrieved and towed it. After friendly consultation the Philippine side returned the floating object to the Chinese side on the spot. The Chinese side expressed gratitude to the Philippine side. There was no so-called blocking of the course of a Philippine Navy boat and forcefully retrieving the object at the scene.โ€

So, there has really been much ado about a little incident, a tempest in a teapot so to speak. Then we get the news of the National Security Adviser Clarita Carlos recommending a โ€œnote verbaleโ€ to China over the โ€œspace debrisโ€ incident. Shall this be another โ€œprotestโ€ added to the more than 500 the DFA boasted about? Maybe we canโ€™t blame Madame Carlos for being so defensively reactionary in her recommendations, she is under constant siege herself.

Technically, however, we should take our cure from the UN which has protocols about โ€œspace debrisโ€ under its convention on the peaceful uses of outer space. The SCSPI monitoring group over the South China Sea for China twitted this in response to the many misleading reports about the incident: โ€œSCSPI – According to the international law and the principles adopted by the UNGA, the ownership of objects launched into the outer space and of their components belongs to the launching States. Wherever they are found, such objects and components shall be returned to the launching State.โ€

ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  I scanned several items from the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs (delighted to learn that thereโ€™s such an office) but found them so voluminous that I opted to read articles about them. One I found was from a lawyer on โ€œSolving the Space Debris Crisisโ€ by Paul B. Larsen, Georgetown University Law Center. One section was about โ€œRETURN OF DEBRIS, Article VIII of the OST provides that space objects, including their components, found outside their state of registration must be returned to the state of registry upon proof of ownership.โ€ That confirms SCSPIโ€™s contention and it was right for the Philippines to turnover that piece of debris it found in the Pagasa area, although nobody went through the process of forensic identification of the object. We can all safely assume that it does not belong to the Philippines since we have no space program and China did just send out several rockets into space in the recent weeks and months past. The Philippines is already establishing its own space agency, very soon cooperation with Chinaโ€™s space program will ensue.

 
 
<strong>Herman โ€œKa Mentongโ€ Tiu Laurel</strong>
Herman โ€œKa Mentongโ€ Tiu Laurel

is a broadcast journalist. He is aย former columnist of Daily Tribune (INFOWARS and DIE HARD III; Mondays and Wednesday) and OpinYon (Consumersโ€™ Demand!, Criticโ€™s Critic, and Peopleโ€™s Struggle; weekly).
He hostedย Talk News TVย andย Journeys: Chronicles of our Asian Century, both on Global News Network.
He is now the host of the radio and live stream program Global Talk News Radio for Radyo Pilipinas 1 โ€“ 738AM, which broadcasts every Sunday 8AM to 10AM.
While in quarantine, he is hosting the live stream program Power Thinks on his personal Facebook pageย Herman Laurelย (fb.com/hermantiulaurel) and theย Global Talk News Radioย Facebook page (fb.com/globaltalknewsradio)
He was also the former Administrator of the Philippine Refugee Processing Center (PRPC; now called the Bataan Technology Park, Inc.) during the administration of Corazon C. Aquino.

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